Florida executes Glen Rogers

Florida executes suspected serial killer once eyed for possible link to the OJ Simpson case

A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the O.J. Simpson case that riveted the nation in the 1990s was executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman found dead in a Tampa motel room.

Glen Rogers, 62, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke and was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of 2 he had met at a bar.

He also had drawn a separate death sentence in California for the 1995 strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of 3 whom he had met at a bar in Van Nuys in that state. That killing came weeks before the Cribbs murder. Rogers was stopped after a highway chase in Kentucky while driving Cribbs’ car soon after her death.

In a final statement, Rogers thanked his wife, who visited him earlier in the day at the prison, according to visitor logs. He also somewhat cryptically said that “in the near future, your questions will be answered” without going into detail. He also said, “President Trump, keep making America great. I’m ready to go.” Then the lethal injection began, and he lay quietly through the procedure.

The entire execution took just 16 minutes. Once it began, Rogers hardly moved, only lying still with his mouth slightly open. At one point, a staff member grasped him by the shoulders, shook him and yelled, “Rogers, Rogers” to see if he was conscious. No family members of the Florida victim spoke to the press afterwards.

Rogers was named as a suspect but never convicted in several other slayings around the country, once telling police he had killed about 70 people. He later recanted that statement, but had been the subject of documentaries, including one from 2012 called “My Brother the Serial Killer” that featured his brother Clay and a criminal profiler who had corresponded extensively with Rogers.

The documentary raised questions about whether Rogers could have been responsible for the 1994 stabbing deaths of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

During a 1995 murder trial that drew intense media attention, the former football star and celebrity Simpson was acquitted of all charges. Los Angeles police and prosecutors subsequently said after the documentary’s release that they didn’t think Rogers had any involvement in the Simpson and Goldman killings.

“We know who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. We have no reason to believe that Mr. Rogers was involved,” the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement at the time.

Simpson had always professed innocence but was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil case, and subsequently served nine years in prison on unrelated charges. The 76-year-old Simpson died in April 2024 after battling cancer.

Rogers, originally from Hamilton, Ohio, had also been labeled the “Casanova Killer” or “Cross Country Killer” in various media reports. Some of his alleged and proven female victims had similar characteristics: ages in their 30s, a petite frame and red hair.

The U.S. Supreme Court had denied Rogers’ final appeals on Wednesday without comment.

Rogers’ lawyers have filed several unsuccessful appeals with state and federal courts. One argument was that newly enacted state legislation authorizing the death penalty for trafficking in young children makes clear that the abuse he suffered as a child is now taken seriously and should result in a life prison sentence for Rogers. That argument was rejected.

Florida uses a 3-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Corrections Department.

— Rogers became the 5 condemned inmate to be put to death in Florida this year, and the 111th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on May 25, 1979. Only Texas (594), Oklahoma (128), and Virginia (113) have carried out more executions since the US Supreme Court allowed states to resume death sentencing via the July 2, 1976 Gregg v georgia decision.

— Rogers becomes the16th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,623rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

— Anthony Wainwright is the next Florida inmate scheduled for execution — on June 10 — under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Wainwright, 54, was convicted of kidnapping a woman from a supermarket parking lot in Lake City in 1994 and raping and killing her.

Source: The Associated Press, Staff, Rick Halperin, May 16, 2025

Statement on the Execution of Glen Rogers

Tonight, we the people of the State of Florida executed Glen Rogers for the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs.

Long before he ever committed a crime, Glen was beaten, trafficked for sex, repeatedly raped by adult women, and forced by a child predator to pose for sexually explicit pictures—all before he was a teenager.

For decades, the public has been fed a one-dimensional narrative about his sensational crimes. This false narrative does a disservice to both Glen and his victims. It reduces his victims’ lives to the singular moment of their violent deaths and ignores the heartbreaking truth of a child who became a danger to others because no one protected him.

For the entire 2025 legislative session, our lawmakers and Governor DeSantis have been claiming that their highest calling is to protect victims of childhood sexual abuse and sex trafficking. How can the same state that claims to champion the rights of child trafficking victims turn around and kill one?

Unfortunately, you cannot separate the victimization from the victimizer. This is not to suggest that every victim of sexual abuse will turn towards violence. But you cannot ignore the undisputed link between untreated childhood trauma and the commission of future harm. Just because not everyone who smokes cigarettes gets lung cancer doesn’t mean that smoking doesn’t dramatically increase the risk of lung cancer.

It’s easy to label those on death row as “monsters” and focus only on the gruesome details of their crimes. What’s far harder, and far more uncomfortable, is addressing the root causes of violence.

Tonight, Florida executed a man they once should have saved. His execution did nothing to prevent future victims or future offenders. It is simply one final act of violence to an already devastating story.

Glen’s state-sanctioned murder was the ultimate hypocrisy: Florida’s “commitment” to victims of sex trafficking is nothing more than a sound bite to score political points.

Source: Floridians For Alternatives To The Death Penalty, Staff, May 15, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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